Raipur/Dantewada : For decades, August 15 was like any other day in Ramji Dhruv’s life. Driven out of his village of Konge in 2013 by Maoists, the 42-year-old let Independence Day pass without any fanfare, fearful of the ever-watchful rebels.
“Today, there is no area in Dantewada where the police and administration cannot reach. Residents – who largely hailed from the Madiya communities — were forced to undertake arduous journeys for basic necessities to Bijapur either on foot, bicycles or sometimes by tractors. “We have finally returned. “Revenue records for these villages are available only up to the 1990s. After the formation of Chhattisgarh, Maoist activities intensified and these areas remained severely affected. Those who disobeyed were branded police informers, attacked or forced to flee. The villages were once part of the Maoists’ military and political network, with senior leaders operating from the dense forests of Abujhmad.
India became independent on August 15, 1947, but Abujhmad has received its real freedom only now. Officials said 92 villages across Bastar – including 33 in Bijapur, 50 in Sukma and nine in Narayanpur – will hoist the Tricolour on August 15 for the first time since Independence. More than 500 locations across Bastar, including schools, public squares and community buildings, will also be renamed after martyrs and local icons on August 15. In Koraskodo, Hachekoti, Adnar, Boter, Kumnar, Diwalur, Gundekot, Rekapal and Rasmeta, residents said black flags were hoisted on August 15 and villagers were often ordered to remain inside their homes.
“Maoists had branded me a police informer and held me hostage,” he said. Masiharam Nureti of Garba village said several local residents spent years away from their homes after being forced to flee. This year, we will hoist the Tricolour with pride,” he said. Dantewada superintendent of police Chandramohan Singh said the villages had effectively disappeared from the administrative map during the height of the insurgency. The Maoists demolished government buildings in the villages and cut the roads connecting them with the administrative headquarters, effectively cutting them off from the rest of the district,” Singh said. Government institutions are returning, schools are reopening and development work is reaching villages that remained inaccessible for decades,” Singh said.
But since the government declared the end of Maoist insurgency earlier this year, the situation has changed.
